Huge increase in rail traffic according to Irish Examiner article in the past year indicating that ppl will drop the car if an alternative is available. Time to begin to reopen the like of WRC to Limerick and further south like Rosslare and Cork to take pressure off mainline and improve connectivity. Use the infrastructure that the ppl have paid for over years.

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/poli...ider-1.3598691
Government acting sensibly and strategically by looking at the advantages a rail corridor along the western route can provide to the entire country and not just the west. Such an artery to southern ports via Limerick will open up options for travel and freight and relieve the overused mainline from Dublin to Cork. This is about connectivity and access. Greenways are great but should not be provided at the expense of a rail corridor that could never be put in place today with all its infrastructure and right of way.

Maybe I have not seen that restriction during my time so far.I based my point on the title of the website which is “rail users” which I assumed meant those that use rail because in most countries rail has many purposes. If your point is to remove discussion on the relevance of Western Rail Corridor then I see it as an effective way of closing down discussion and I wonder why is that the case?

Thx James for your supportive words I also thought is was strange on a medium that discusses rail matters it’s about the retention of National infrastructure put in place over a century ago and now invaluable in terms of what it can offer the country. In future decades there will be high speed monorail systems and its only the permanent way that will be important to give the route.

I normally disagree with Goods on specific issues. However railway infrastructure cannot be neatly partitioned into Passenger or Freight. The viability of a rail line is surely related to the total amount of traffic (and hence revenue) generated. A line could be hopelessly unviable if confined to either Freight of Passengers but viable if it carried both. For example the South Wexford line became a basket case once the Freight went a few years ago, so the passenger service became unsustainable.

Unfortunately Freight is now so marginal in Ireland that this point tends to be lost, but looking to the longer term future and the increased need for really energy efficient transport, then the overall importance of railways for long-distance traffic of all kinds could be much greater than it is now.

I read today that Knock Airport is now serving 800k passengers and I remember at the time it was being built clever economists and other cynics belittling the notion of an airport on a foggy boggy hill in Mayo. Yet the grounded Canon Horan knew better and persevered and built the airport providing accessibility and competing with the Dublin metropolis. Western Rail Corridor has many of the same critics who do not envisage a future when public transport will be more in demand and what such key infrastructure could do to reconnect the west.

https://connachttribune.ie/taoiseach...reopening-690/
It looks as if someone is starting to listen and politicians start to think long term. This is a national asset and critical transport for 21st century connectivity. Connect west and south and breathe life into static communities with rail and new thinking - just do it!

According to the Connacht Tribune the WRC stats on passenger journeys has far surpassed the initial Irish Rail estimates confirming that despite the D4 cycnics the demand is real. Reopen the remainder of this great rail corridor and allow it to make a difference and prove the experts wrong again

The number includes passengers from Ennis to Limerick (always healthy enough) and Athenry to Galway (probably benefitting from improved frequency and the reopening of Oranmore), but there’s still a massive question mark over numbers between Ennis and Athenry, which is where the funding went.

Any reopening is competing for resources with other rail projects, like Waterford-Rosslare (with usable services), Athlone-Mullingar and Midleton-Youghal. The fact there’s a big motorway to Tuam must have seriously damaged its chances.

I can’t vouch for different figures on different parts of the line though I feel that point could be made for any line I think it’s fair to say there is an increasing demand.
I’m not sure if Athlone Mullingar is being considered but I think that the WRC has so much to offer as an alternative route to ports in the south as Brexit looms and as the mainline Dub-Cork route is choked up

If we're talking about connecting ports in the south as a Brexit insurance policy, surely Waterford to Rosslare would be of far higher priority than the WRC. In particular if the Barrow bridge is left to decay, it will become pretty much impossible to reopen Waterford to Rosslare even if there was a will to do so.

I don't think think any of Waterford - Rosslare, Athlone - Mullingar and Middleton - Youghal are under any consideration anywhere other than on on-line forums. All three would probably stack up better as a business case than the WRC yet for some reason the latter has remained on the news agenda for the best part of 20 years.

Agree completely with you about the bad decision to shut Waterford Rosslare which is an example of Irish Rail fragmented thinking. In both France and UK lines to ports continue despite the rise in car ferry travel. Bikers and hikers are regularly disembarking in Rosslare and then what?
On WRC what makes that line different from the others you mention is it’s connectivity with other mainlines - Sligo line, Westport, Galway and Limerick three of our top cities and one of our leading tourist destinations all connected via WRC.
West ofIreland TDs bar a few stalwarts like Sean Canney in Galway are more interested in the next election that long term planning for the west.
Knock Airport would never have been the solution it is today if it relied on short-termism of today’s TDs. They should band together and do something strategic for a change

"The revenues from operations came about as a 45.5m passenger journeys were made across Dart, Commuter and Intercity network matching the company's highest ever passenger numbers in 2007" - Irish Rail annual report.

Rreceipts from Public Service Obligations (PSO) increased from €110.64m to €114.779m while other exchequer funding fell from €112.58m to €95.98m.

We are decreasing funding to rail at a time when the country is taking in billions in tax and simultaneously preventing the network develop to its full potential by keeping lines like WRC idle instead of increasing connectivity. The demand is there provide the service. 95m in funding to a system that is giving service to 45m people thats 2 euro per passenger. Look at what a department like Justice costs - about 2 billion!